Ocean circulation is the large scale movement of water throughout the ocean basins. Water is moved by wind moving warmer surface water toward polar regions and the cooling and sinking of waters in the polar regions drive deep water circulation. The more efficient the cycle, the more heat is transferred, and the warmer the climate. The following resources explain ocean circulation and issues surrounding ocean circulation in a changing climate.
The NERACOOS ocean and weather climate display delivers information about the average weather and ocean conditions between 2001 and 2012. The display also includes information about recent and past years' ocean and weather conditions so that you can compare them to the average conditions from the past decade.
The upper layers of the Canadian Basin constitute a large reservoir of freshwater and buoyancy that derives from river runoff, sea-ice meltwater, and relatively fresh North Pacific waters. We use salinity, oxygen isotopes and nutrient concentrations to study the varying contribution from freshwater components in a series of Arctic Ocean cruises between 1989 and 2005.
